Sunday, January 29, 2012

Economist Nouriel Roubini, nicknamed 'Dr Doom', who successfully predicted the sub prime crisis in 2008 is now predicting the current financial slowdown could last a decade unless Europe radically reforms itself and the United States gets serious about its own overwhelming debt deficit.

He painted a grim picture of the euro zone in recession and key emerging markets in China, India, Brazil and South Africa slowing down. The biggest uncertainty is the possibility of a conflict with Iran over its nuclear programme - which could lead oil prices to spike to US$150 per barrel, and lead to a global recession, he said.

Calling for a major change in policy priorities, Dr Roubini said: "We have to shift our investment from things that are less productive like the financial sector and housing and real estate to things that are more productive like our people, our human capital, our structure, our technology, our innovation."

Slow growth in advanced economies will likely lead to "a U-shaped recovery rather than a typical V", and could last up to 10 years if there is too much debt in the public and private sector, he said.

At a panel discussion yesterday, Dr Roubini also said Greece will probably leave Europe's single currency within 12 months and could soon be followed by Portugal.

When you re-login to your Google account, Google is now prompting you to read its new unified privacy policy. Come Mar 1, 2012, Google will be unifying its current more than 70 privacy policies into one single privacy policy. Google urges us to take a few minutes to read its updated Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service now.

Twitter announced on Thursday that it is now able to block tweets and accounts from appearing in specific countries to comply with governments' request to censor information. Before that, Twitter can only block globally.

As we continue to grow internationally, we will enter countries that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression. Some differ so much from our ideas that we will not be able to exist there. Others are similar but, for historical or cultural reasons, restrict certain types of content, such as France or Germany, which ban pro-Nazi content.

From Twitter, it will not block tweets and will stay reactive. It will review and will withhold specific content when requested and necessary.

When an account is blocked in a specific country, users of that country will see that blocked profile as below:

And when a tweet is withheld instead, the tweet will be seen as below:

Friday, January 27, 2012

You can configure a badge with a width that fits your site design and choose a version that works better on darker sites. You'll also see that Google+ badges now include the unified +1 and circle count that we added to Pages last month.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

I always admired the current chairman of Microsoft and co-chair of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates. He is a man full of heart for the world. Yes, I believe many know this man - once richest man in the world but lost, or rather gave away, the title to a Mexican business man. If not for his giving away billions dollars for charitable effort so far, he would have retained his richest man title.

In his annual letter, he pledged to give more in 2013, investing in agriculture hoping to feed the still many poors in the world, without enough food to pass a day. In effort in polio was noted to be a success with only one such case reported in India in year 2011.

Apart from his annual letter, you may also wish to watch the video below on an exclusive interview by the ABC News.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Come Mar 1, 2012, Google will be unifying its current more than 70 privacy policies into one single privacy policy.

We’re getting rid of over 60 different privacy policies across Google and replacing them with one that’s a lot shorter and easier to read. Our new policy covers multiple products and features, reflecting our desire to create one beautifully simple and intuitive experience across Google.

For current privacy policies, click here (specific product policies at the right side. New coming unified privacy policy can be found here for preview.

Social networking sites Facebook, Twitter and MySpace together launched the "Don't be Evil" bookmarklet in response to Google including its Google+ pages in its search results. Google+ integration into search results has been criticised by competitors that it is not displaying the most relevant social network for an individual, and rather, it's simply promoting their (often less relevant) Google+ page.

The "Don't be Evil" bookmarklet attempts to put focus back to the user, looks at the three places where Google only shows Google+ results and then automatically googles Google to see if Google finds a result more relevant than Google+, and showing them instead.

There are two methods to trying out the "Dont' be Evil"

As a bookmarklet

Go to Focus on the User (www.focusontheuser.org), click on the "Try a More Relevant Google", and then drag the "Don't be Evil" bookmarklet to your browser's bookmark toolbar. Next time you perform a search that displays social results, click the bookmarklet for improved social results.

As a Chrome extension

Install this browser extension to automatically run our bookmarklet every time you go to google.com.

The apt-get command is a powerful command-line tool used to work with Ubuntu's Advanced Packaging Tool (APT) performing such functions as installation of new software packages, upgrade of existing software packages, updating of the package list index, and even upgrading the entire Ubuntu system.

Update the Package Index - Run this command periodically to make sure your source list is up-to-date.

sudo apt-get update

Upgrade Packages - This command upgrades all installed packages.

sudo apt-get upgrade

Upgrade Packages with "smart upgrade" - The same as the above, except add the "smart upgrade" checkbox.

A professor, Kong Qing-Dong (孔庆东), from the Mainland China Peking University gave his commentary labelling Hongkongers as 'dogs' on the recent incident involving a quarrel between Hong Kong and mainland passengers on a MTR train in Hong Kong.

The quarrel on the train was sparked after angry Hongkongers tried to stop a mainland girl eating a snack on the train. The incident was captured in a 2-parts video and uploaded onto YouTube. The mainlanders apologised eventually only after the train staff was alerted.

2012-01-15 火車內罵戰 香港人大戰大陸人 Part 1 [1/2]

2012-01-15 火車內罵戰 香港人大戰大陸人 Part 2 [2/2]

So, did the mainlanders know eating is not permitted in trains in the first place? In the Part 2 video, the little girl was heard telling her mother they should be the one in the wrong but was quickly "ssshh" by her mother.

32,767 characters. Only 1,024 display in a cell; all 32,767 display in the formula bar.

Sheets in a workbook

Limited by available memory (default is 3 sheets)

Colors in a workbook

56

Cell styles in a workbook

4,000

Named views in a workbook

Limited by available memory

Custom number formats

Between 200 and 250, depending on the language version of Excel you have installed.

Names in a workbook

Limited by available memory

Windows in a workbook

Limited by system resources

Panes in a window

4

Linked sheets

Limited by available memory

Scenarios

Limited by available memory; a summary report shows only the first 251 scenarios

Changing cells in a scenario

32

Adjustable cells in Solver

200

Custom functions

Limited by available memory

Zoom range

10 percent to 400 percent

Reports

Limited by available memory

Sort references

3 in a single sort; unlimited when using sequential sorts

Undo levels

16

Fields in a data form

32

Custom toolbars in a workbook

Limited by available memory

Custom toolbar buttons

Limited by available memory

Workgroup specifications

Feature

Maximum limit

Users who can open and share a shared workbook at the same time

256

Personal views in a shared workbook

Limited by available memory

Days that change history is maintained

32,767 (default is 30 days)

Workbooks that can be merged at one time

Limited by available memory

Cells that can be highlighted in a shared workbook

32,767

Colors used to identify changes made by different users when change highlighting is turned on

32 (each user is identified by a separate color; changes made by the current user are highlighted with navy blue)

Calculation specifications

Feature

Maximum limit

Number precision

15 digits

Largest number allowed to be typed into a cell

9.99999999999999E+307

Largest allowed positive number

1.79769313486231E+308

Smallest allowed negative number

-2.2251E-308

Smallest allowed positive number

2.229E-308

Largest allowed negative number

-1E-307

Length of formula contents

1,024 characters

Iterations

32,767

Worksheet arrays

Limited by available memory. Also, arrays cannot refer to entire columns. For example, an array cannot refer to the entire column C:C or to the range C1:C65536. However, an array can refer to the range C1:D65535 because the range is one row short of the maximum worksheet size and does not include the entire C or D column.

The internet is the most powerful tool we have for creating a more open and connected world. We can't let poorly thought out laws get in the way of the internet's development. Facebook opposes SOPA and PIPA, and we will continue to oppose any laws that will hurt the internet.

The world today needs political leaders who are pro-internet. We have been working with many of these folks for months on better alternatives to these current proposals. I encourage you to learn more about these issues and tell your congressmen that you want them to be pro-internet.

Google main search engine page is now seeing an additional link urging the Congress not to censor the Internet to oppose against Stop Online Privacy Act (SOPA) and Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA).

Google's stand is to end piracy and not liberty and Google wants us to sign a petition urging Congress to vote NO on PIPA and SOPA before the Senate will begin voting on January 24th. Click here to vote.

The English Wikipedia is now blacked out globally to protest Stop Online Privacy Act (SOPA) and Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA).

For over a decade, we have spent millions of hours building the largest encyclopedia in human history. Right now, the U.S. Congress is considering legislation that could fatally damage the free and open internet. For 24 hours, to raise awareness, we are blacking out Wikipedia.

Microsoft entry to the social network industry is still in its development, with a brand new social network called So.cl, dropping the vowels, which pronounces the word as Social. So.cl is still under development and is open for a limited amount of users.

I am still waiting for an invite. Do drop me one if you have spare invite.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Google on Thursday unveiled Android Design site, a guide on how to create the best Android apps and interfaces. It is a place to learn about principles, building blocks, and patterns for creating world-class Android user interfaces.

Google has been rolling out gradually and soon, search results will begin showing in its new "Search Plus Your World" format. In this new format, it finds both content that's been shared with you privately on Google+ along with matches from the public web, all mixed into a single set of listings.

From a Google blog post, three new features are introduced to make up the "Search Plus Your World"

Personal Results, which enable you to find information just for you, such as Google+ photos and posts—both your own and those shared specifically with you, that only you will be able to see on your results page;

Profiles in Search, both in autocomplete and results, which enable you to immediately find people you’re close to or might be interested in following; and,

People and Pages, which help you find people profiles and Google+ pages related to a specific topic or area of interest, and enable you to follow them with just a few clicks. Because behind most every query is a community.

Friday, January 13, 2012

As listed Bloomberg Businessweek, SMRT former CEO Phaik Hwa Saw total calculated compensation amounted to $1,847,611 for having tendered her resignation amidst series of SMRT trains breakdowns incident in December 2011.

ANNUAL COMPENSATION*
Salary $666,303
Bonus $842,308
Total Annual Compensation $1,508,611
STOCK OPTIONS*
All Other Compensation $60,000
TOTAL COMPENSATION*
Total Annual Cash Compensation $1,568,611
Total Short Term Compensation $1,508,611
Other Long Term Compensation $60,000
Total Calculated Compensation $1,847,611

Senior Minister of State for Ministry of Environment and Water Resources Grace Fu wrote on her Facebook page on Wednesday in response to the recent announcement by the Ministerial Salary Review Committee. The committee suggested on Wednesday cutting the prime minister's annual pay by 36 per cent to S$2.2 million, ministers' yearly wage by 37 per cent to S$1.1 million and the president's annual salary by 51 per cent to S$1.54 million.

Grace Fu wrote:

When I made the decision to join politics in 2006, pay was not a key factor. Loss of privacy, public scrutiny on myself and my family and loss of personal time were. The disruption to my career was also an important consideration. I had some ground to believe that my family would not suffer a drastic change in the standard of living even though I experienced a drop in my income. So it is with this recent pay cut. If the balance is tilted further in the future, it will make it harder for any one considering political office.

Her Facebook post has since gathered over a thousand comments so far, of which many were criticisms. In response to these criticisms, Grace Fu remarked the public has misunderstood her. She replied, but still holding onto her stand of further cuts may dissuade talented people into joining politics.

Thank you all for your candid views. I respect all of them. I realise my last posting could have been misunderstood. The committee has done a thorough job with a substantial recommendation over a fairly emotive topic. I accept and respect the recommendations.

I am honoured to be given the opportunity to serve the people. However, it may not be wise to call for the tradeoffs to be tilted further to an extent that it dissuades good people from coming forward in future. I read today's papers and some readers make the same point. Thanks for your views again.

Sunday, January 01, 2012

A hand grenade throwing exercise went horribly wrong in China when a recruit's throw had his grenade hit a sandbag wall instead of over it. The live hand grenade bounced back and landed into the ditch beside the recruit and the instructor.

The quick-witted instructor nimbly dived into the other side of the ditch, dragging the recruit together with him, saving his life, before the grenade exploded in seconds. What puzzled me is the instructor actually rose up and began clearing the mess coolly and naturally to prepare for the next hand grenade thrower, as if such incident is common anyway. Hope not.

A short 48-seconds video clip showing the incident captured over 1.8 million viewers so far. Watch the video below.